godslum: The Landlord System

Chapter 3: The Corporate Landlord

Aaron didn’t move. Selene Kaine stood in his lobby. She was clean, cold, and perfect.

“You’re Selene Kaine,” Aaron said.

“I am,” she said. She didn’t step in Marco’s blood. She looked at it like it was dirt. “And you are the new owner of this broken place. Congratulations.”

Lily held Aaron’s leg tight. Maria pulled her daughter back.

“Get out,” Jamal said from the stairs. He had a pipe in his hand. “You’re not welcome here.”

Selene looked at Jamal. She didn’t blink. “Put that down. You’ll hurt yourself.”

Jamal stepped forward. Then he stopped. His face went white. He dropped the pipe. “I… I can’t breathe.”

Aaron felt it too. The air got heavy. Selene wasn’t doing anything. She was just standing there. But her power was huge. It pressed down on everyone.

*SYSTEM WARNING: DOMAIN PRESSURE. SELENE KAINE’S DOMAIN: CORPORATE TOWER. EFFECT: FEAR, DEBT, CONTROL. TENANT MORALE: -20%.*

“Stop it,” Aaron said.

Selene smiled. The pressure stopped. Jamal fell to his knees, gasping.

“I’m not here to fight,” Selene said. “Not yet. I’m here to make a deal.”

“I don’t make deals with people like you,” Aaron said.

*SYSTEM: TARGET ANALYSIS. SELENE KAINE. SINS: 5,204 COUNTS OF EVICTION FRAUD. 89 COUNTS OF FORCED LABOR. 3 COUNTS OF INDIRECT MURDER. VERDICT: DEATH. REWARD: KAIN TOWER. +500 SOUL RENT.*

Kill her. Take her tower. Get strong.

Aaron’s hands made fists. The key tattoo on his palm got hot.

Selene saw it. “The system told you to kill me, didn’t it?” She stepped closer. “It tells all of you that. Kill. Take. Own. It’s how the god feeds.”

“What god?” Aaron asked.

“The Hearth God. The one you saved.” Selene looked around the lobby. “He’s a liar. All gods are. They give you power, then they use you to fight their wars.”

“You’re one of them,” Aaron said. “A landlord. You hurt people.”

“I run a business,” Selene said. “Marco was a pig. He hurt people for fun. I evict people because it’s the law. Because they don’t pay. If I don’t, my buildings fail. Then hundreds lose their homes. Is that better?”

She wasn’t wrong. But she wasn’t right either.

“My system says you’re guilty,” Aaron said.

“My system says you’re stupid,” Selene said. “Do you think you can kill me? Here? Now?”

Aaron looked at his tenants. Mrs. Chen was shaking. Lily was crying. Maria held her close.

He couldn’t fight here. The building was only 13% fixed. It was weak.

“What do you want?” Aaron asked.

“A meeting,” Selene said. She held out the black card again. “Tomorrow. Noon. At my tower. Just talk. No killing. No system tricks.”

“If I say no?”

“Then I buy this building from the city,” Selene said. “You killed Marco. You have no papers. No legal deed. I have lawyers. I have money. By tomorrow night, this place is mine. And everyone here is on the street.”

She was right. Aaron had no papers. He was a killer, not a landlord. Not yet.

*SYSTEM: NEW QUEST. LEGALIZE THE DEED. GO TO CITY HALL OR ACCEPT SELENE’S HELP. TIME LIMIT: 24 HOURS.*

Aaron took the card. It was cold.

“One more thing,” Selene said. She looked at Lily. “The Cabal won’t stop. They sent the faceless men tonight. Next time, they send the Reapers. You can’t beat them alone. Not with one building.”

“Reapers?” Aaron asked.

“Landlords who gave up their souls for power,” Selene said. “They don’t own buildings. They own death. Marco paid them to protect him. Now that he’s dead, they will come for you.”

She turned to leave. At the door, she stopped. “Fix your lobby, Aaron. You smell like blood and mold. No one will rent from you like this.”

She walked out. A black car was waiting. It drove away.

The lobby was quiet.

Jamal picked up his pipe. “We should have jumped her.”

“We’d all be dead,” Mrs. Chen said. “Did you feel that? That was power. Real power.”

Maria was holding Lily. “What do we do now?”

Aaron looked at his hand. The key tattoo was cool again.

“We fix the building,” Aaron said. “And I go to that meeting.”

“You can’t trust her!” Jamal said. “She’s one of them!”

“I don’t,” Aaron said. “But she’s right. I need papers. Or we all lose.”

*SYSTEM: QUEST UPDATED. REPAIR BUILDING TO 50% TO UNLOCK NEW POWER. CURRENT: 13%. SOUL RENT: 24%.*

Aaron closed his eyes. He could feel the building. The broken pipes. The bad wires. The holes in the roof. The mold.

“Jamal,” he said. “You know how to fix pipes?”

“My uncle was a plumber,” Jamal said. “I helped him sometimes.”

“Mrs. Chen. You used to clean hotels, right?”

“Thirty years,” she said.

“Good,” Aaron said. “We start now. We work all night.”

*TENANT UNION: JOB ASSIGNED. REPAIR MODE ACTIVE.*

Aaron put his hand on the wall. “I’ll pay you,” he said. “Not with money. With power.”

He pushed. Power flowed from him into the building. Then into the tenants.

Jamal gasped. “I feel… strong.”

Mrs. Chen stood up straighter. “My knees don’t hurt.”

*SOUL RENT USED: 10%. BUILDING HEALTH: 18%.*

It was working.

They worked all night. Jamal fixed pipes. Two other men helped him. Mrs. Chen and three women cleaned. They scrubbed mold. They swept floors. They threw out trash.

Aaron walked the building. He touched walls. He fixed wires. He closed holes. Every time he did, he got tired. But the building got stronger.

*BUILDING HEALTH: 25%... 32%... 41%...*

By morning, the lobby was clean. The lights worked. The air smelled like soap, not piss.

The tenants were tired but happy. They sat in the lobby. Someone made coffee.

Lily brought Aaron a cup. “For the landlord,” she said.

Aaron smiled. He took the cup. It was the first time anyone gave him anything since his dad died.

*BUILDING HEALTH: 50%. NEW POWER UNLOCKED: BRICK SKIN. YOU CAN TURN YOUR SKIN TO BRICK. COST: SOUL RENT.*

Aaron made a fist. His skin turned gray and hard like a brick wall. He hit the wall. The wall cracked. His hand was fine.

Jamal whistled. “Okay, that’s cool.”

*SOUL RENT: 4%. LOW. GET MORE TENANTS TO GET MORE POWER.*

It was 11 AM. One hour until the meeting.

Aaron went to his old apartment, 3B. It was empty. Marco’s blood was gone. Someone had cleaned it.

He found a clean shirt in a closet. It was too big. But it was better than his bloody one.

He looked at himself in the broken mirror. He didn’t look like a landlord. He looked like a homeless mechanic in a big shirt.

But he felt different. Stronger.

He went downstairs. The tenants were waiting.

“Be careful,” Maria said. “She’s dangerous.”

“I know,” Aaron said.

“We’ll be here,” Jamal said. “If you don’t come back, we’ll fight.”

Aaron nodded. He walked out the front door.

Kain Tower was twenty blocks away. It was the tallest building in the city. Glass and steel. It looked like a knife pointing at the sky.

Aaron walked. He didn’t have money for a bus. People looked at him. He was dirty, tired, and wearing a big shirt.

He didn’t care.

He reached the tower at 11:59 AM. The lobby was huge. The floor was white stone. The air was cold. Men in suits walked fast. No one looked happy.

A woman at a desk saw him. “Can I help you?” She looked at his clothes.

“I’m here to see Selene Kaine,” Aaron said.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“She’s expecting me. Aaron Wolfe.”

The woman typed on her computer. Her eyes got wide. “Oh. Mr. Wolfe. Yes. Please, go up. Floor 100. The elevator on the left.”

The elevator was fast. It had no sound. The numbers went up. 50… 75… 90… 100.

The doors opened.

Selene’s office was huge. One whole wall was glass. The city was small below. Her desk was black. There were no papers on it.

Selene stood by the window. She wore a white suit. Same as last night.

“You came,” she said. She didn’t turn around. “I thought you’d try to kill me.”

“I thought about it,” Aaron said.

She turned. “Good. That means you’re smart.” She pointed to a chair. “Sit.”

Aaron didn’t sit. “You said you’d help.”

“I can,” Selene said. “I can make you legal. I can give you money. I can teach you the rules. In return, you work for me.”

“Work for you?”

“The Cabal is breaking,” Selene said. “Too many landlords. Not enough city. They are fighting each other. The Reapers are out of control. Soon, it will be war. I want to win that war.”

“You want me to kill for you,” Aaron said.

“I want you to survive,” Selene said. “You have one building. I have five hundred. Join me, and your tenants live. Fight me, and you die. And they die with you.”

*SYSTEM: CHOICE. ACCEPT ALLIANCE. REJECT ALLIANCE. KILL TARGET.*

Aaron looked at the city. From up here, his building was small. A dot.

“Why me?” he asked. “You have five hundred buildings. Why do you need me?”

Selene walked to her desk. She opened a drawer. She took out a piece of paper. It was old. Burned at the edges.

“Because you have this,” she said.

She put the paper on the desk.

It was a deed. Like the one in Aaron’s hand. But this one was for Kain Tower.

“My deed is fake,” Selene said. “I bought my power. I didn’t earn it. The system doesn’t talk to me. It doesn’t give me quests. I’m not a real landlord. I’m just rich.”

She looked at Aaron. “But you? The Hearth God chose you. You have a real deed. That means you can do something I can’t.”

“What?” Aaron asked.

“You can kill the Prime Landlord,” Selene said. “The one at City Hall. The one who owns the Book. Kill him, and you control all deeds. You control the system.”

*SYSTEM ALERT: HIDDEN QUEST FOUND. KILL THE PRIME LANDLORD. BECOME THE LANDLORD GOD. REWARD: ALL BUILDINGS. ALL POWER.*

Aaron’s head spun. Landlord God.

“Why don’t you do it?” he asked.

“Because I can’t,” Selene said. “The Book won’t let me. Only a real landlord can. One chosen by a god.”

She stepped closer. “Help me kill him. I’ll give you half the city. You can protect your tenants. You can be king.”

Half the city.

Aaron thought of Lily. Of Maria. Of Mrs. Chen. Of Jamal.

He could keep them safe.

But the system was screaming in his head.

*KILL HER. SHE IS GUILTY. SHE IS LYING. TAKE HER TOWER.*

Aaron looked at Selene. Her eyes were cold. But they were also scared.

“Let me see the deed,” Aaron said.

Selene slid the paper to him.

Aaron touched it.

It was cold. Dead. There was no power in it. She was telling the truth.

He made his choice.

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

Selene’s eyes got hard. “Don’t think too long. The Reapers come tonight. For you. For your building. For everyone inside.”

She went to the window. “Look down there. See that?”

Aaron looked. A black van was parked across from his building. Men were getting out. They wore black coats. They had no faces. But these were different. They had scythes. Big, curved blades.

“Reapers,” Selene said. “They will kill everyone in your building. Then they will burn it. Unless you have real power to stop them.”

She looked at Aaron. “You have until sunset to decide. Join me, or watch your tenants die.”

*SYSTEM: URGENT QUEST. DEFEND YOUR BUILDING. REAPERS INCOMING. ESTIMATED TIME: 6 HOURS. SOUL RENT: 4%. NOT ENOUGH.*

Aaron ran to the elevator.

He had to get back. He had to fight.

The elevator doors closed. Selene’s voice came through the speaker.

“Choose fast, Aaron. The god of death doesn’t wait.”